Hacker News Reader

Comment by aohtsab | Hacker News Reader

Agreed on the lack of e-ink. When I read that Amazon and Sony would have to struggle to provide a touch-screen, full-color interface, I thought that meant Apple had come out with an e-ink tablet. It looks really cool, yes, but frankly I'm disappointed it's not e-ink. That specific feature attracted me to the Kindle in the first place, and I absolutely love that I'm not staring at light.

View on HN

What is the appeal of e-ink? I breathed a sigh of relief that it was not based on e-ink - a technology that isn't up to the task of doing what this device can do.

e-ink's appeal is in the fact that it is beautiful to read off of. I do however agree that its not the right display tech for this device.

It would also last longer than 10 hours. The display only eats power when you change the screen. That said, its refresh rate isn't great.

eye fatigue... imagine when you stare at a computer screen too long, reading now... your eyes get tired from strain, you could get burning sensation, glare, dry eyes.. all this could lead to bigger health concerns. Thats why e-ink is superior. People have reported issues with led and sight. If you want an ebook reader, the kindle,nook , and ereader are all superior for a hard core ebook reader. links : http://www.computervisionreadingeyeglasses.com/eye_fatigue_s... problems with led: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1677617...

e-ink is the only real replacement for reading of paper (as of today). All other screens simply don't cut it - the resolution is way too low, they flicker, and you'll find that you can't read from them for too long without getting tired.

Why don't people understand what an incredible compromise e-ink is? It does nothing well except emulate words on a printed page. It can't be used for Web surfing, it can't be used for gaming, it can't show photos or videos, and you can't use it to implement any kind of meaningful user interface. It's too slow by two orders of magnitude for any of these tasks.

If you want to try to compete with Apple by building an expensive gadget that only does one thing well... good luck with that.

I think most people do recognize the compromise.

It does nothing well except emulate words on a printed page.

Thats the whole point! People want something they can stare at and read for hours without hurting their eyes. Its target specifically at people who want to get the book reading experience without carrying around a book.

As for the limitations you mentioned, I believe they are well acknowledged. At the moment, people are just happy to keep their eyes in good condition.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com